Reporter / Producer, The Indicator From Planet Money

This is a Full Time Job

OVERVIEW

Across our organization, we’re building a workplace where collaboration is essential, diverse voices are heard, and inclusion is the key to our success.

JOB SUMMARY

The Indicator is one of the biggest daily podcasts around, reaching more than a million people each week through podcasts and radio. We’re looking for two Reporter/Producers who can deliver something insightful to say about economics, business, the news, on tight deadlines, with clarity, creativity, wit, empathy, and brevity. This is a role for an analytical thinker with broad curiosity and a weird streak. Originality and individuality is valued in this role. As is collaboration, kindness, inclusivity and journalistic rigor.

This is a hybrid role of Reporter and Producer. You’ll do both and should enjoy both roles if you are to thrive in this position.

You’ll pitch in mixing episodes, booking guests for teammates, co-writing and team editing others’ work, probably also some sorting out of technical problems and logistical puzzles as producers do. You’ll also be on-air regularly, encouraged to find your own voice and personality in front of the mic, to find stories each week that energize and excite you and inform and clarify big issues for millions of listeners.

We are open to candidates from non-traditional backgrounds within journalism, business, finance, education or anywhere else. Please read on for details.

What we’re looking for:
• Be an analytical thinker with a sense of humor and narrative.
• Have a knack for translating that knowledge in simple, clear, entertaining ways to lay listeners.
• More importantly, also WANT to translate that information to lay listeners, not just the investor or business press audience.
• Have co-hosting experience on radio, podcast, television or similar scenario
• Have an on-air presence that sounds informal, smart, friendly and engaging in a scripted and unscripted setting, even about dull, nerdy topics.
• Be able to hit a deadline.
• Have a nose for character and narrative.
• Be able to report, edit, interview, and write scripts for the ear.
• Be well sourced in the fields we cover
• Be able to write a joke or land a joke when needed, and also know when not to tell one.
• Be energized by the challenges of the lob like how to describe a chart on the radio.
• But seriously about deadlines: Have experience hitting daily deadlines, preferably in audio
• Be deeply committed to diversifying the stories we tell and the voices we book for our show.
• Have specific ideas for how to change the show for the better.

Responsibilities

• Find, pitch, report, book, script and edit up to 2-3 stories a week
• Co-host up to 3-5 stories a week.
• Contribute to group edits of other staff-members work.
• Ability to work with producers and delegate tasks smoothly.
• Ensuring all journalistic and ethical standards are met and exceeded.
• Write radio versions for NPR broadcast programs
• Write web versions as needed
• Represent NPR, Planet Money and The Indicator in live and online events occasionally and appear on other media to promote The Indicator.
• Mentor and assist in the professional development of junior staff
• Along with co-host, editor and other staff, set the news agenda for the program.
• Factor in diversity of sourcing and representation of all voices when planning and executing the program
• Ability to evolve with the job as the show continues to grow

Education:
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Required:

This is a prominent position, integral to the functioning of a small team, so you should be able to demonstrate:
• Professionalism, ability to meet a tight deadline over and over, high ethical standards, ability to work closely in a team with kindness, compassion, and empathy.

Preferred:
• Economics expertise
• Experience in audio.
• Daily news experience
• Experience in long-form, narrative journalism.
• Experience working on deadline and working independently.
• An analytical mind.
• Excellent writing chops.

Additional Requirements
• Ability and willingness to relocate. NPR may choose to transfer employees to other geographic locations. Severance provisions of the AFTRA collective bargaining agreement will apply should you choose not to accept a transfer.
• Ability to work quickly and efficiently under deadline pressure.
• Ability and willingness to work varied shifts.
• Proven ability to consistently work well with others, demonstrating at all times respect for the diverse constituencies at NPR and within the public radio system.

HOW TO APPLY
• Please submit a resume along with a cover letter. We’d love some links to previous on-air hosting or reporting or other work of yours that demonstrates explanatory storytelling of complicated ideas or topics.
• Include your honest criticism of The Indicator. What should we stop doing? What can we do more of? How would hiring YOU change the show. Help us hear that difference in our heads. Show us your ambition.
• Also, this job is about making complex topics clear and entertaining. So show us how you do it. Please explain something complicated in audio in 90 seconds or less. Choose any topic you like and link to the audio file in your cover letter. No need for a fancy mix, phone voice memo recording is OK, as is any other way you want to approach it.

Please apply online through our career site at http://www.npr.org/about/careers/.

NPR is an Equal Opportunity Employer. NPR is committed to being an inclusive place to work that welcomes diverse and unique perspectives, all working toward the same goal – to create a more informed public. Qualified applicants receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, veteran status, membership in the uniformed services, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law

NPR offers a competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits package including health and wellness benefits, retirement, and work/life balance programs, as well as opportunities for career growth and development.